Welcome to CowansCrossing

After leaving Tuscon we just headed east on I-10. Pretty uninteresting, alot of wind and the coach drove straight and true. “Nice” experience – another concern to check off the worry list. Spent a couple of days in Mesilla, just south of Las Cruces.

A nice little Mexican plaza and church, lots of cute shops and a great Mexican restaurant – Andele. Get the green chile enchiladas! Authentic.

We saw a little open air shop along a main road with bunches of red chilies hanging all around the outside of the store. We pulled in, not knowing what to expect, but, oh my, strangest place we’ve ever been! With no fixed walls and the wind blowing through there was lots of clanking chimes, plenty of dusty, “stuff”. Hard to describe, but many seasons of caked on dust on everything they had to sell: black Indian pottery, some gems, old curled up post cards, honey, and dirty chilies. There were 3 guys in the shop, with as much evident age and dirty, dusty skin as the desert around them, plus eyes that shown through to their hard living. Scary looking at first but more a result of their environment.

There is nothing  between NM and San Antonio. Nothing. Brutally boring and monotonous. Nice RV resort there for a couple of days. We were able to go to one of the Spanish missions, San Juan and have the following photos to share.

Finally! In what seemed to be an eternity, we have (finally) left California! Our plan was to pick up the the new motorhome, shake it down locally, and learn how to live in it. The new coach has so many, many features, especially when compared to our old Class C. The Lazy Daze was a great camper for us, especially with our kids growing up, but it served its purpose and we, sadly, sold it. Although we were reasonably knowledgeable about motorhome living, the new Tiffin is like the latest electronics centric car and we were coming from a “radio and heater” car. Lot’s to learn and understand, but fortunately, we were a couple steps up the learning ladder to start with, and gratefully, the Tiffin is a great coach with few problems and tons of amenities and features.

So, we reached our time to leave Cali and have stopped for a few days in Arizona. First, “casino camping” in Yuma on the Cocopah Indian reservation. A small but clean casino with a parking lot for campers, and and nice breakfast buffet. Laura played some video games in the casino and we left with a few more sheckles than we came with ! Nicely done Laura.

Next day we head to Tucson and stay at the Rincon West RV Resort for a few days. Mostly full of snowbirds but a few spots for transients like us. Everyone there is very welcoming and friendly and interested in our story. This is a 55+ resort with many full time residents, or at least full time owners. Not exactly our kind of place, but lots of activities and clubs like a woodworking shop, knitting and sewing, ham radio and of course pickleball, tennis, pools and such.

On two separate days we visited both the east and west parts of the Saguaro National Park, both with its own personality and character. It was easy to envision that if each cactus had branches and leaves, this would be an impressive forest! The cactus have a tough and extremely slow growing life: 50 years until they grow their arms, 150 to 200 years is expected.

The images are representative of the area but it is so hard to express their enormity! Impressive and intimidating at the same time.

Along one of the dirt roads in the western district we happened upon some petroglyphs left by the Hohokem indians at Signal Hill. Pretty eerie sitting there thinking that 800 years ago the original residents were making these images.

A quick stop through Arizona and we are onward towards Texas, but New Mexico awaits…

Well, it has been about 5 weeks* since we picked up our Tiffin motorhome. So much has happened and changed in that short time. This blog is intended to be a journal and commentary of our travels and adventures and will follow in that direction. That is the “only” direction we have, our plans are to not plan, travel as we feel, in a direction that suits us for the moment, without the rigid and structured business life we have led for so many years.

So far, that is “sort of” what we have done. We have planned out our first five weeks, out of necessity mind you. Southern California it turns out is quite full of snow birds and other motorhome types. Not surprisingly, the weather here is so much nicer than most anywhere else in the US, that finding RV resorts and other campgrounds is a bit difficult. Laura has done a great job in making reservations and we have been able to grow into our new lifestyle in the motorhome.

Week 1 we stayed at the Rancho Jurupa County Park, in Riverside, CA. We had full hook ups and were right on a nice little lake…beautiful time, except for the skunks! (See post Lesson 1)

Week 2 we traveled to Julian, inland from San Diego, and stayed in another county park, William Heise. (See Post xx) A lot more secluded and it really felt like camping. A mine tour and lots of hiking made it a relaxing time. The motorhome is proving itself to be a great home, not really roughing it at all, and spacious enough for Laura, myself, Grayce the dog and our two cats, Lola and Rosie. The 3 pets are quite anxious when we’re driving, but have settled into their new home once we park!

Week 3 brings us to Newport Dunes, the back bay. This is a very pricey location since it is right on the water, next to Pacific Coast Highway, and Balboa Island. Accommodations there are nice, although a bit tightly spaced. A nice family get together for Scotts birthday with Matt, Natalie and Rachel enjoying a great grilled meal, (Scott’s a great griller!). The motorhome is a very accommodating, even for 6! I just love this coach!

Week 4 and we’ve moved to Paradise by the Sea campground in Oceanside, CA. Very close to the beach, unfortunately dogs are not allowed on the beach! (Turns out we were not the only ones with dogs on the beach).

Week 5 and the dez. A great visit with mom and brothers, seeing endangered big horn sheep, an oasis along the San Andreas fault were among the highlights of a bittersweet week. Sweet to be getting close to our “real” travels, bitter to be saying “see you later” to family. Don’t know when we’ll be back, but it’s getting real! Our travels and adventures await us! Onward!

*Note: 5 weeks when this was originally composed. Due to the “busy” schedule and learning wifi connections on the road, this was posted a couple weeks later….

A beautiful week in Julian, CA., at William Heise County Park. This is inland from San Diego about an hour and a half, no freeways, no city congestion or traffic. Mostly just basic southern California wilderness, beautiful none the less. The park gave us easy access to the town of Julian, famous for apple pies, but with many other sites to see.

The town was originally founded due to the discovery of gold. Unlike northern California gold, this was “dry mined”. Tough hard work for certain. The miners would chase a line of quartz in which gold was contained. The “Julian schist” is very tough so the mines that were dug were very stable and cave ins were non existent. Not to say that this was safe work at all.

We took a tour through the Empire mine that was very informative and enjoyable. Anyone traveling to Julian must take the tour! At some point, early 1900’s they connected two adjacent mines together, we entered the Empire Mine and exited out of the High Peak Mine.

Well, where do we start? Right here ! 😉

Some old iron is still on site and gives an idea of how tough this life was.

The look of “Are you sure about this?”

“Made it!”

After getting the solar panels installed, we traveled south and inland from San Diego to the old mining town of Julian. This was the first “real” trip in our new coach and was about 100 miles. With little experience driving a 40 foot long coach and no experience with towing our jeep behind the coach I will admit to a little anxiety for the upcoming travel day!

Notice that there are no straight roads on that route, no open freeways, nothing like getting thrown into the deep end of driving the coach. How long is 40 feet plus a Jeep in tow? How wide is it? How do I judge the pivot point? What about the rear end swing out when turning? White knuckle time? Yup.

After we arrive I can say I am glad we took that route, just about everything you can imagine, we encountered. A few miles of freeway, mostly single lane, up and down, hills, construction zones, fire swamps and the Cliffs of Insanity! (see Princess Bride). Well, we passed the audition! We are certainly not experienced driving the coach but now we know what we don’t know – the first step!

The campground at William Heise County Park is beautiful, about 1,000 acres of Southern California hills. It is located  an elevation of about 4,500 feet – we had one day of rain and could see the snow level on the hill side above us. Quite striking. The camp spaces are spread apart enough so that your neighbors don’t share your life, plus they have full hook ups at a reasonable nightly rate.

Some good hikes, lots of deer, and the sounds of wild turkeys to go to sleep to. What’s not to like!

Definitely will be back.

A quick stop at Redlands Truck and RV to get solar panels installed. We now have 480 watts through a PWM, pulse width modulated, controller. With an all electric coach we want to be able to do some dry camping, or boondocking. Still a lot to understand, but we did leave the coach for a day with some lights on, an overhead fan running plus the main refrigerator and the outside fridge/freezer in the basement. The battery voltage dropped from 12.8v to 12.4 volts, to about 50% charged. Seems ok, but will need to better understand how much power we use and what is required to keep the coach powered up. The first priority is to keep the electric refrigerator running through the night. We do have a generator if we are not able to control our electrical usage. We’ll see.

By the way, Redlands Truck and RV has done an excellent job, not only on the solar, but they also installed the Air Force One auxiliary braking system in our Jeep. Not only did they do quality work, they took the time to explain all work done, plus they have a small, full hook up campground! We were able to coordinate our travels, spend a couple of nites in their campground and get the work done. Very satisfied!

So far, so good.

Finally! The coach has arrived and it’s Big and Beautiful, Big Allegro Bus, Bad A$$ Bus!

BABs is now her name.

A short drive from the dealer to a local campground, Rancho Jurupa, and we are able to maneuver BABs into a great spot, right next to a cute little lake. There are lots of wildlife around, which is nice, but, there’s always a “but” huh? Well, the second night I stepped out with Grayce, our Labrador retriever, not on a leash. Just for a moment, just enough time for Grayce to go chasing full speed through the darkness and right to the “back door” of a skunk! Yikes! Like nothing we have ever experienced, and in our new coach. So much for that new coach smell! Phew!

Wildcamera

Wildcamera

Turns out that a mixture of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and a little dish soap helps a lot. The tomato juice treatment doesn’t really help!

Lesson One: Never, ever let the dog off the leash unless all, and I mean ALL, distractions and risks are accounted for!

FYI, the skunk photos here are from our “wildlife cam”, a motion activated trail cam that was set up underneath our jeep where I accidentally spilled some pet food. I figured sometime during the night my mess would magically be cleaned up. I was right!

After many days, no, months, actually years, our coach has arrived! We have taken her out to a local county park, Rancho Jurupa, in Riverside, Ca. and have been impressed by the amenities, function and comfort. The dog and cats are fitting in and Laura and I are “nesting”, trying to fit in the “stuff” we think we’ll need and adjusting to a new, less structured life style.

Next stop, solar panels, then off to try some boondocking, dry camping.

Here we are, still waiting, anticipating and pacing. Calling and texting doesn’t seem to help. Alabama might as well be in a different country, hard to get a straight answer on when the coach will actually deliver! It was ordered 4-1/2 months ago….and now they are waiting for parts. Arggh. Or was it the weather, or was it the high demand, or was it…doesn’t matter really. It will be here soon and will be a great coach.

Repeat after me: “Good things come to those that wait, good things come to those that wait…” Alright already. Enough. We are ready now!

Well, the timing will probably work out for the best anyway. Retirement. Oh yeah, that! End of this month, January, 2018, ends my full time working commitment. Commitment to my family, my coworkers and myself. Many years of 5am wake ups, long commutes, eating left overs for lunch, work travel away from family. Done.

Our coach should arrive right at the last day of work! What a great retirement gift!

Here is my new office chair. Great view and great company!